Baby in the Thicket
by badformeti
Summary: This is an adaptation of the story of Kaguya Hime, the Japanese folktale that I heard often growing up.


This is an adaptation of the story of Kaguya Hime, the Japanese folktale that I heard often growing up. Please be willing to tell me if it needs work, I can take it.

**Baby in the Thicket**

Long ago, when childless couples were known to be rampant across the legends of Japan, one such childless couple, a young bamboo cutter and his wife, sat alone in their quiet thatched house consuming their dinner of thin rice gruel and tea. The wife sat nervously, while her husband sat relaxed but uneasy.

"There's something missing isn't there?" remarked the wife sadly; as she stared across at her husband, the flames flickered lightly in the fireplace.

The bamboo cutter looked up from his bowl of gruel, "You're right. I'll go get the firewood, it's awfully chilly." He placed his bowl on the tatami mat as he started to stand.

"No! It's not that." The wife blushed. "It's that, we've been married for quite some time…"

"Only 2 years!" the bamboo cutter interrupted quickly, unable to see where his wife was going with her comment.

"Yes…2 of the most marvelously blissful years, but something is missing." The bamboo cutter's wife took a deep breath and held it. "I wahnehabebaby" she mumbled inaudibly.

"What?" The bamboo cutter looked at her completely puzzled.

"I wahnahabe Baby." She mumbled and tripped clumsily over the words, choosing to stress her desire clearly.

"What?" The bamboo cutter repeated his expression, "I don't understand, please speak clearer." He asked, wondering why his normally bubbly outgoing wife was so pale and unable to speak.

"I…"

"You."

"Wa.. want…"

"You want?"

"To…To Have…"

"You want to have?"

"A…A baby…" The wife finally finished, letting go of her held breath at last.

"Oh! Is that all?" The bamboo cutter laughed. "A baby isn't a bad thing at all! Why it'd be nice to have a tiny you or me running around! I'll be sure to pick one up at the market tomorrow! That Kosugi family has tons of babies! Maybe we can get one from them tomorrow!"

"Um…I don't think the Kosugi's will be willing to give up their children." The wife looked at him very concerned.

"No? Hm…Where could we possibly get a baby?" The bamboo cutter asked, lost in bewilderment. He turned to see his wife coyly laying out a futon and unraveling her kimono. "Bedtime already? Why are you undressing? Are you hot? I'm feeling a bit chilly; I'll go grab some more firewood real quick so we won't have to worry about going out in a cold morning." He slipped on his sandals and trotted outside with his shiny metal axe; leaving his wife to wring her hands in desperation.

"He'll never figure it out!" She cried angrily.

The bamboo cutter walked alone in the night. The full moon was out quietly sallow as if mourning something and it made the bamboo cutter a bit uneasy even if he was carrying an axe. His usual path through the bamboo thicket was deathly silent, making the bamboo cutter worry if there were foxes and badgers about, as they had been known to play tricks on humans on nights such as these. To ease his growing concern he began to hum a fun ditty and wonder why his wife was quick to lie out on a futon and undress on such a cold night. Then he saw a flash of light.

It glimmers. It flickered like a golden carp in the sea of night and vanished into the depths. Then as if that golden carp flicked its tail, the flash returned, glowing ever brightly and a bit longer now that he had noticed it. Curiously, the bamboo cutter tried to locate its origin, only to discover that the flash of light, its glimmers and its flickers, came from a lone bamboo in a clearing separated from the other bamboo shoots. Believing it to be the work of trickster foxes and badgers the bamboo cutter swung his sharp axe, cutting the glimmering bamboo clean through, revealing a greater flash of blinding light.

As the light died down a little the bamboo cutter peered to see a baby girl in the bamboo stem, illuminating the clearing with soft golden light.

"It's like you robbed the moon of its shine." The bamboo cutter smiled. "Oh it seems like someone was listening to us!" He carefully took the baby girl in his arms. The baby silently and instinctively leaned toward his warmth. "No fox or badger could do such a thing." Cradling her in an effort to keep both the baby and himself warm, he carried the baby back to his home, proud that he had found a baby so beautiful that his lovely wife would never refuse and easily love and help fill a void in their otherwise quiet life.


End file.
